Source:  www.assistnews.net

Date:  2008-01-30

Evangelist in Western Kenya describes threats toward and increased counseling workload with the traumatized in violence following contested election results

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

KENYA (ANS) -- Ethnically driven violence intensified in Kenya earlier this week, and police officials said at least 19 people, including 11 children, were burned to death in a house by a mob.

An evangelist in Western Kenya, in the District of Kisii, where there has also been a lot of violence writes: "The incident was similar to one on January 1, when up to 50 women and children seeking shelter in a church in another Rift Valley town were burned to death by a mob. Reliable sources indicated that a large crowd of Kikuyu chased a group of Luos through a slum, trapped them in a house, blocked the doors and set the house afire. The police found 19 bodies huddled in one room. Some of the children's bodies were so badly burned they could not be identified."

The evangelist told ANS that the Sunday fighting erupted between gangs of Kikuyu and Luos, two of Kenya's biggest ethnic groups, who have clashed across the country since the election.

"Witnesses said that mobs threw flaming tires and mountains of rocks into the streets to block police officers from entering certain neighborhoods. The mobs then went house to house, looking for certain people," he writes.

"More than 100 people have been killed in the past four days, many of them shot with arrows, burned or hacked with machetes. As you know, a disputed election in December ignited long-simmering tensions that have so far claimed over 1000 lives and rendered over 500,000 homeless."

The evangelist explains: "The country seems to be becoming increasingly unhinged, with even the Kenyan military, deployed for the first time, unable to stop the wave of revenge killings.

"The most distressing aspect is that the opposing politicians, instead of cooperating to stop the bloodshed, continue to bicker over who started it."

The evangelist said: "It is safe in Kisii but the Kisiis who were staying in Kisumu, Eldoret, Kericho and Nakuru have been badly affected."

The Kisii are a Bantu speaking community whose population is estimated at over 2 million in western Kenya -- about 400 km from capital Nairobi -- sandwiched between two large Nilotic communities -- Luo and Kalenjin -- that supported the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) in last year's elections.

The evangelist adds: "When the presidential results were announced on Sunday Dec. 30, hell descended especially on the Kisii people who had settled among these neighboring communities. The attackers are reported to have accused members of the Kisii community of failure to vote as a bloc in support of ODM."

The evangelist told ANS that during the elections, the Kisii had voted for both ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga and Party of National Unity (PNU)'s Mwai Kibaki. But ODM supporters accused the Kisii of voting only for Kibaki.

"I can claim that the Kisii community was democratic as it voted for both presidential candidates equally. It is yet to be clear why the community has borne the brunt of the post-election violence."

One Nyamue tribe member, who was working in Kericho at a tea factory was warned of "dire consequences" soon after presidential results were announced.

"We were told we will see fire because: 'If it wasn't for you people, Kibaki wouldn't have won'" she was told. "Since I realized there could be trouble, I ran to a police station," she said. Her house was set ablaze.

The evangelist continued: "It was the same night her friends from the Kisii community faced terror. They hid their children in tea plantations for safety only to be flushed out by dogs. Some were mauled. Others escaped with dog bites. Most of the children's parents did not make it out of the tea plantations alive. We hear right now there are ants feasting on the bodies.they have decomposed and dried up."

The evangelist said that by January 1, hundreds of traumatized Kisii people who had left their homes a long ago to settle elsewhere and raise families started streaming back in lorries without any earthly possessions and some without their loved ones.

"Others had witnessed their family members being butchered or their mothers and sisters being sexually defiled by young men. They got shelter in church compounds -- first in Kericho town -- before the police escorted them to church compounds in neighboring Kisii districts. I personally managed to visit the displaced who were camping at the Kisii Catholic church where I donated food to the affected.

He said it has been difficult for the families to confirm the number of deaths since access to the areas they had fled is blocked after youths took over control of highways -- unless one has security escort.

The evangelist confirmed that former UN chief, Kofi Annan is in the country, trying to help restore peace.

"He visited internally displaced people (camps where people have been pushed from their homes, from their farms, grandmothers, children, families uprooted) then told President Kibaki and ODM leader, Mr Raila Odinga, to be ready to make hard choices on the negotiation table for the sake of peace.

Annan said that even as mediation talks go on, Kibaki and Raila "must be prepared to take tough decisions to restore peace to build a strong and viable Kenya" but he did not elaborate on the hard decisions he said the two leaders must face.

Annan later said in a press briefing: "The crisis has mutated from an electoral dispute into much deeper problems with a high potential for recurrence.We cannot accept that this sort of incident takes place every five years or so and no one is held to account. Impunity cannot be allowed to stand. Any attempt to resolve the issue must go beyond electoral dispute if a lasting solution is to be found... We must tackle the fundamental issues underlying the disturbances -- like equitable distribution of resources -- or else we will be back here again after three or four years."

The evangelist said he prays that Kofi Annan's efforts bear some fruit.

He concluded: "Please keep praying for Kenya. My family is safe but life is not the same way it used to be. Most commodities are not available and the ones that are available now cost more than thrice as much. We are surrounded by needy neighbors and church members, some accommodating several displaced relatives. We are doing what we can to help them move on. I now spend more hours in a week doing counseling to those traumatized than I used to do. Please keep us in prayers. God bless you."